Not Surprised: Rappers Lie About Their Riches In Their Songs

Rappers just love to brag about their “bread.” Countless music videos show artists flinging around excessive amounts of cash. With their flashy Italian cars, gold chains, and expensive clothes on screen, how much of the big-talk boasting match their actual bank accounts? Skeptics at Bloomberg BusinessWeek reveal the truth behind our rappers’ claimed “riches.”

“I’m in Saint Tropez on a big boat, on my way to make a billi like a big goat,” said a bumbling Nicki Minaj in “Up in Flames.” We can let the “Starships” singer strut around claiming she makes a billionaire’s salary like a large farm animal, but BusinessWeek tells us Minaj really makes $15.5 million — seven percent of one billion.

Minaj isn’t the only culprit. We all love Pitbull’s new summer jam, “Feel this Moment,” but we certainly don’t like liars. “I see the future but live for the moment, make sense don’t it. Now make dollars, I mean billions, I’m a genius, I mean brilliant,” he said. Yeah, right. Mr. Pitbull, you make $9.5 million. Please don’t insult our intelligence.

Then there’s the richest man in hip-hop. For some reason, he’s not satisfied that he’s No. 1 on the “Richest Rappers of 2013” list with a net worth of $580 million. Oh no, he has to convince everyone that he’s “dippin’ in the gatti, billboards in Tokyo. Worth about a billion and still run the city” in “Shot Caller Remix.” Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, Diddy—whatever your name is—you only make half of that.

“And a b**ch can’t call me cheapskate, I’m worth 20 millon eBay,” Gucci Mane — with the ice cream cone face tattoo — proudly proclaimed in “Pistol in the Party.” We don’t know what planet this man is on, but BusinessWeek discovered that the most expensive Gucci Mane item on eBay was an autographed microphone for $200. Two whole hundred dollar bills! We are just so astonished by excessive value of wealth that Gucci Mane has-an online auction site.

While BusinessWeek also calls out Nas, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, and Rick Ross on their rubbish claims of wealth, the only rappers that refrained from exaggerating their riches were Wiz Khalifa, Ludacris, and Jay-Z. Both Wiz and Luda kept it real on the $10 million they make.

Jay-Z — who’s worth $475 million — is not far off the target when he said “Like these rappers rap about all the s**t that I do really. I’m like ‘Really: half a billi, really?’ You got baby money,” in “HAM.”

Jay was tired of rappers pretending they are more prosperous than they truly are. As a result, in his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, which went platinum (kind of), he decided to point it out in his”Versus” track: “The truth in my verses, versus, your metaphors about what your net worth is.”